IFLA affirms that comprehensive open access to scholarly literature and research documentation is vital to the understanding of our world and to the identification of solutions to global challenges and particularly the reduction of information inequality.

Open access guarantees the integrity of the system of scholarly communication by ensuring that all research and scholarship will be available in perpetuity for unrestricted examination and, where relevant, elaboration or refutation.

The IFLA definition of OA derives from the Bethesda statement. The IFLA statement was approved by the IFLA Governing Board on December 5, 2003, but only released today. Also see the press release accompanying the statement.

Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/24/2004 03:06:00 PM.

The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.